


Variant

by ThatSinga



Series: Rowvember 2020 [8]
Category: Saints Row
Genre: Combat, Gen, Rowvember, Rowvember 2020, Stag - Freeform, Variant - Freeform, fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:00:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27464584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatSinga/pseuds/ThatSinga
Summary: Velvet encounters a new type of enemy on the battlefield.
Series: Rowvember 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995631
Kudos: 9





	Variant

The Saints and STAG had been at war for weeks now, with no signs of either side giving in in sight. Ever since blowing up their aircraft carrier, the Thermopylae, the Special Tactical Anti-Gang Unit had become much more aggressive and ballsy in their operations, sending in more troops and vehicles than they did at the start of their occupation, arresting people wearing Saints merch or even just purple clothing in general, and gunning them down if they resisted.

The Saints' leader, Velvet had gotten a call about STAG soldiers blockading a Planet Saints store at the riverfront in Sunset Park, not letting people enter, and harassing the employee with threats of storming the shop. When he called the Boss' number, he had expected her to send some of the crew to take care of it, instead she came to the location personally.

What had started as a little exchange and use of excessive force between Vivi and the five STAG soldiers, had turned into a battlefield that covered the entire street, that was scattered with dead STAG members with cracked visors, Saints, destroyed N-Forcers and Crusader tanks, burnt out Saints vehicles, and tons of dropped guns, ammo and equipment. There were small craters in the road where grenades and missiles had impacted and torn the asphalt asunder. Many of the flower pots and trees that divided the two lanes were completely obliterated. Velvet was currently taking cover behind one of the remaining ones as she plugged another rocket into her Annihilator RPG. She waited for the laser fire to seize as the soldier's guns had to cool down before she got up from her hiding spot and aimed the rocket launcher's iron sight at the white tank behind the troops. She pulled the trigger and the rocket's propulsion fired up as it soared across the battlefield before impacting the tank’s hull, consuming the vehicle and soldiers around it in a fiery explosion.

She had a wicked smirk on her face as the smoke cleared, revealing the burning wreckage of the military vehicle. Velvet reloaded her rocket launcher, waiting for the next wave of STAG goons to arrive, but none came.

"Is it over already?" she wondered out loud. No more shots were being fired, no more soldiers yelling commands at each other, the fight seemed won. She slumped down behind the little brick wall again, reloading her pistol and LMG she had used to mow down her enemies prior. Her ears perked up when she heard a faint noise in the distance. The sound was gradually getting closer, it sounded like the chains on a tank approaching her location, but this one sounded different from the usual Crusaders or Challengers she was used to fighting.

It was close now, it should come into view at any moment now. She carefully peeked up from her cover as she readied her RPG towards the direction the tank was going to show up from.

"Wait a minute," she raised an eyebrow when she got a visual on the vehicle. A new variant of the Crusader had entered the fight. It looked like a regular STAG tank, but in all black with orange decals. "It's that prototype I saw on the ship!" she realized, "So they finished it?" The tank steadily rolled around the corner, she could tell it was slower than its regular counterpart, which meant it was likely heavier, probably from improved armor.

Before hesitating any further, she re-adjusted her grip on the RPG and fired a missile directly at the new tank. It exploded against the machine, covering the vehicle in a cloud of dust, smoke and fire. She chuckled at her victory and got up from behind her cover, she dusted herself off and was about to leave the scene as her eyes widened in shock. As the smoke had cleared, she discovered that the tank was still intact, not only that, but it seemed to be completely unharmed from her attack.  
"What the f-" was all she could say before the tank's canon aimed directly at her and fired, she only had a split second to jump away and avoid being blown apart by the explosion, the shockwave still send her flying for a short distance.  
"Ow, fuck," she winced as she roughly landed on her hip. She got back up despite the pain, knowing she didn't have much time before the tank would shoot again. She had dropped her rocket launcher to dodge the attack and now only had her pistol left.

There wasn't much she could do, the RPG had been destroyed in the blast, she was out of grenades, and her pistol wouldn't even scratch the thing. So she decided to sprint towards the tank and fired a couple of rounds at it to get the driver's attention. She noticed that whenever a bullet should have connected with its hull, there was this little blue light emanating instead, like some sort of energy barrier. She knew a tank's weaknesses, and she hoped this one was no exception. She dove in front of the large vehicle, where its guns couldn't reach her, since it was unable to aim that low up close, so the driver did the next best thing he could do, try to run her over and crush her under its enormous weight.

That's exactly what she was hoping he'd do, as she slowly backed up at the same speed as the tank drove towards her, making sure not to go too far ahead into firing range, but stay far enough away to not get caught under the tank's chains. She kept that game up and slowly lured the tank across the road and towards the wooden docks to the west. The tank driver tried to back up a few times, to get enough distance to just shoot her, but she'd quickly take a step towards the tank again, and he was unable to accelerate fast enough to catch her off guard and quickly run her down either, so he had no choice but to hope she'd eventually trip over a dead body or some debris on the ground.

When she eventually did trip from her heel getting caught in a small gap in the wood, the driver was eager to finish her, and kept driving forward.

"Too easy," Velvet snarled as she stayed low. The middle part of the tank was elevated above the floor, enough space for her to crawl under as the vehicle drove straight ahead onto the wooden dock. It was a risky move, if he decided to turn, she'd be done for. But fortunately for her, he didn't. Just as she had planned, the old wood gave in and the tank fell through the ground and into the cold river below. She checked to see if it was completely submerged or if the driver made it out, but when she saw nothing escept for the water's surface and a bunch of wooden debris, she decided it was over.

She pulled out her phone and hit the number 2 on her speed dial. "Pierce," she started, "Yeah, don't worry, I'm okay. Listen, STAG got themselves a new toy. Remember that prototype we snatched from their aircraft carrier? They completed it, and it's no joke. My rocket did no damage to it at all."

"Shit, aight, I'll get the word out to the crew, you wanna have a meeting or something so we can figure out how to deal with these?" Pierce was worried about this new information.

"Yeah, gather everyone at the usual place, I'll be there shortly."

"On it, see ya around, Boss."

The war between the Saints and STAG had just become even more interesting.


End file.
